Tacos with a Side Order of Trauma
by TheaterBug
Summary: One shot set about a week after "Yang 3 in 2D." Gus' reaction to their near-death experience. Best described as somewhat of a dark comedy, although Shawn would probably classify it more as "gray" than dark.


**A/N: Hey everybody! This is my first _Psych_ fic. I love the characters and I hope I've done them justice. Enjoy!**

Disclaimer: I do not own Psych or any of its characters.

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"Gus!" Shawn greeted brightly as he entered the Psych office. "I brought us tacos!"

He noticed as Gus scrambled to put something away. "I'm not hungry, Shawn," he responded, "but thanks."

Shawn frowned. "Gus, this is the third free meal you've turned down this week and I know how much you love these tacos," he remarked. "Not to mention that you haven't complained about anything I've done and you've been sneaking around and hiding things, like whatever you just put in your bottom drawer."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Gus lied.

"Buddy," he urged but, when Gus didn't budge, he sighed. "Okay. This is about Yin, isn't it?"

Gus' back stiffened and he wouldn't meet Shawn's gaze. "Yin is dead, Shawn," he replied simply.

"Yeah, but it should've been us," Shawn retorted. "Did it freak you out? You seemed okay after it happened. Delayed reaction?"

"I don't care about the fact we almost died, Shawn," Gus explained. "It happens almost on a daily basis and I've come to accept it as part of the job. It's just..."

He trailed off but Shawn knew he was seconds away from cracking. "Yeah?" he prompted.

"He made me feel so...worthless," Gus confessed. "Yin loves for—_loved_ for his victims to suffer. He tied Juliet to a chair above the city. He tied Abigail to the bottom of the pier. All this psychological stuff where they would be tortured, watching death come for them before it actually came."

Gus stood up and began pacing the office, a clear sign to Shawn that this had been really eating at him. "We saw how fast that poison killed him," Gus continued. "I would've been dead before I even knew what hit me. Where's the suffering in that!"

For the first time in a long time with his friend, Shawn actually felt a few steps behind. "Wait, you're upset because he wasn't going to torture you with your death?" he checked.

"He revels in that stuff, Shawn! And he kills plenty of people," Gus argued. "Yet, somehow, I wasn't even worth torturing. I was just an obstruction in his path to get to you. He was just so hell bent on getting _you_ and torturing _you_ and sadistically killing _you_—"

"Gee, thanks, buddy," Shawn interjected.

"—that he didn't even want to torture _me_. I meant nothing to him. I mind as well have been a sack of rice he just had to move out of the way. I'm almost surprised he bothered to kill me at all," Gus finished, looking oddly dejected, his head bowed in almost shame. He sighed and finally met his friend's eyes. "I'm nothing, Shawn. I'm not even worth a miserable death to a sadistic killer who thrives on that stuff."

Shawn took a moment to let the words sink in and make sure he was hearing correctly. Gus was so distraught over not having a traumatizing death experience? Granted, he did have a point; Yin loved to torture his victims yet Gus' death would've been relatively easily. For Gus, anyway. Not for Shawn who, as Gus so kindly pointed out, was Yin's real target. Shawn shook back the chills and grinned at his friend.

"Come on, Gus," he chirped, trying to cheer the other man up, "you're totally worth it. So one sadistic killer was going to let you die easy – big deal. You've been threatened with death by plenty of others!" Gus opened his mouth to argue but Shawn pressed on. "Who knows, maybe next time I'll be the one swept aside with a quick killing lethal injection and you'll get all the torture."

"No way, Shawn," Gus cut in. "I am not watching you die."

"Oh but I'm supposed to watch you be tortured to your death?" Shawn shot back. "No chance, buddy!"

"Well I'm not going to watch it happen to you either!" Gus countered.

"Fine!" Shawn exclaimed. "Then let's just agree to not get ourselves killed again."

"Deal," Gus answer smugly.

Shawn held back his grin. Gus was just so easy sometimes. He held up the bag that was still in his hand. "So...tacos?" he offered.

"You know it," Gus agreed, eagerly taking the bag from his friend and pulling out his tacos.

Shawn grinned and pulled a chair up to Gus' desk so the two could eat their tacos together. "Ooh, that one's mine," he noted, grabbing the taco Gus had just pulled from the bag.

"You had better not make a mess on my desk, Shawn," Gus warned.

"Gus," Shawn whined. "Don't be a—"

As he gestured wildly with the taco, however, a single piece of beef flew from the shell. Shawn watched it fall seemingly in slow motion until it landed perfectly atop the folder sitting in the center of Gus' desk. Shawn froze. Gus shot him an icy glare. "Shawn..." he growled menacingly.

"Uh...oops?"

Shawn bolted from the room with Gus hot on his heels. "Why is the mess always on my things, Shawn? My shirts, my car, my desk..." Gus could be heard ranting as he chased Shawn down the streets of Santa Barbara. Shawn bit into his offending taco and grinned. Everything was back to normal.

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**A/N: Thanks for reading! Any and all comments are greatly appreciated. I have a few more stories completed or in the works so if you like my style, keep an eye out for more from me soon. Thanks!**

******-TheaterBug-**  



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